- For those who don't know Winds Of Torment yet, could you make a short presentation about the band for our readers, who does what, who writes and so forth?

Winds Of Torment was born in 2001 and is composed of five members: Xavier (vocals), Bertrand (lead and rythm guitars), Jérôme (lead and rhythm guitars), Alban (bass), and Jean-François (drums). We started performing live in March 2003 and we have been doing a lot of gigs since that time. In early 2004 we recorded our first demo MCD "The cells of the Erased". WOT is a very democratic band in which each one of us has the ability to play a role. For the composition, the two guitarists Bertrand and Jérôme usually create the structures and riffs on their own, and then bring it back to the rehearsals, where we all can give our opinion about it. Alban takes care of the lyrics, now also using texts in French from Xavier.

- Could you talk a little bit about your first work, " The Cells Of The Erased "?

Well we started recording it in October 2003, and got it out in March 2004! Quite a long time, a lot of it spent in the Agora Sound Studios to improve the sound of it. We wanted to pull out all the stops with the most professional product we could. We wanted it to be as close to our idea of perfection as we could, and tough we are quite far away from it, we are very proud of the result which is the conclusion of a long and rough work. We hope that people will enjoy listening to it!

Winds Of Torment

- Talking about your first demo, what are the lyrics about and how would you define the musical style shown in the album [or of the band in general]?

We don't really want to give an encyclopaedic definition of our music, because it represents what we love to listen without any restrictions and fences, so we believe it's up to the audience to classify what we do. Let's say that we most of all belong to the death metal scene, but we enjoy putting all kind of influences in our music : brutal parts, melodic parts, acoustic guitars, clear voices, black and epic riffs, thrash riffs… anything we like !
The lyrics of the demo focus on different aspects of human madness, incarnated in his religious devotion, his race for progress, his ability to create wars, etc.… And there is a lot to say!

- What are your influences in general? Stories of dragons and knights like most other Power Metal bands? [I'm not sure though… )] or stories about nowadays world and your own experiences?

No dragons, neither swords nor any knights no… The influences come most of the time of a personal view upon a subject that make us react. There is no explicit message in our lyrics, they are relatively symbolic, and we absolutely don't want to give lessons about anything, whatever the subject is. Our goal is to propose lyrics that are different from what we are used to hear from metal bands, and if people could create their own point of view about these texts that would be perfect!

The Cells of the Erased , first demo of the band

- Both the cover and artwork are damn gorgeous. Where did you find such an artist? What represents that cover by the way? [A piece of advise, when you release the next album, ask him to be in charge of the design once again :-P]

This artwork has been made by Michel Noel, who is a member of Alban's family. We loved is work and asked him if he would be interested in doing this cover, which he accepted, and the result is really awesome! It does not represent anything in particular; the symbols come from old and spiritual civilizations, but nothing on this artwork was made on purpose, it only as a great artistic value to us.

- What kind of feedback do you get concerning your demo? What do you learn from it?

Well people seem to have really enjoyed it until now. We are getting good reviews in webzines and magazines, and hope it will continue like this. We have been receiving laudatory comments upon this demo, and we are very touched by this! That motivates us a lot! We have also learned much from little errors that we have made during the recording, and that will help us to improve for our future recordings

- The mandatory question! How about label contacts? It's certain that some labels must be interested in your work or I'm totally loosing it, right?

In fact we still don't know because we haven't sent anything yet. We planned to wait for the reviews from the whole press, and then we will create a good and complete press book to send to a high number of labels in Europe. Then, well, we'll see! We'd love to have the possibility to record our first album in good conditions, so let's hope it will be the case.

WOT Live

- Is there an album in preparation yet? Do you already have composed new songs?

Yes, we have some new tracks that are already finished; some of them that we have been playing live a lot of times, and brand new material too. Songs like Unspoken pact, Within the last rays, This was my life, and Rules overload will certainly be on our first album

- Any concert dates scheduled ahead ?

We don't have anything booked at the moment, and the summer months are going to be very calm as usual. But we plan to hit the road as soon as possible, and hope that some live projects will become real during the coming year. We are of course open to every proposition!

- I guess you already performed on stage, how was it? With which bands would you like to play in the future?

We did about fifteen gigs from March 2003 to June 2004, and it has been a lot of fun. Playing live is what we love to do, going to different places, meeting interesting people and bands. It went really well for us everywhere we went, and the audience seems to have liked our shows. We always give 200% of us on stage, in our home city as well as in the middle of nowhere, and apart from some little technical problems we are very pleased by the reactions of those who come to see us! We'd love to play in as many places as we could. Of course, our dream would be to play with bands that we love, like Opeth or Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, Testament, but that's yet only a dream. There is also a lot of French band that we hope to meet one day on the road, like Scarve, No return, Gojira, and a lot of other ones of course!

WOT Live

- What were the bands that left a mark on you and inspired you to play music ?

We all have different influences in the band, but let's say, for the main ones : Opeth, Dark Tranquillity, Iron Maiden, Testament, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Emperor, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Blind Guardian, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, In flames, Kreator, At the Gates, Sepultura, Pantera, Biohazard, Death, and so many ones !!! We love so many metal bands, whatever the style might be, it would be too long and fastidious to give all the names! And also of course, a lot of other musical styles, classical music, jazz, blues, well that's very open as you can see…

- Voila, all done. I hope it wasn't too long. Thanks for answering all of my questions and good luck for the future. A last world for our readers?

Thanks a lot for this interview and for your support! Thanxxx also to every one who reads this on Metal Storm! Don't hesitate to meet us on our website at http://www.windsoftorment.fr.st where you can download two songs and discover our music.
We hope to see you all on the road!!!